Your trusted source

Newspaper Golos Armenii in its February 21 issue published an open letter addressed to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Dear Mr. Kerry,

As you must know, a couple of days ago one of the assistants of your deputy, Victoria Nuland, visited our region. This lady, who has by now become famous for distributing either cookies or sandwiches in Maidan in Kiev, made an announcement in Yerevan, which in our opinion does a stronger damage to the image and authority of the office you are heading than the PR campaign of feeding the oppositionists. Because taking under one’s protection saboteurs, spies, robbers and murderers means but one thing – patronage of criminals and their bosses. If the State Department has been given such a function, then Nuland has carried it out brilliantly. If not, then you should demand explanations from the employee who is discrediting the honour and good name of the United States as a world leader in protecting rights and freedoms of people, irrespective of whether they citizens of a recognized or a non-recognized state.

Your employee voiced an offer in Yerevan which cannot possibly fit within any political, moral or diplomatic framework. The high-ranking US diplomat has become a pathetic advocate of a dictator (who throughout the recent years has been under the sharpest criticism from the international community) by asking to set free the criminals sent by him to the territory of another state (yes, a state!) tasked with carrying out espionage, terror and murder. Having been given a cart blanch by Ilham Aliyev for criminal activities, these men illegally infiltrated the territory of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), committed a number of crimes and murdered two people, among whom was 17-year-old Smbat Tsakanyan, simply because the latter was interfering them, or to be more precise, because he was Armenian.

I can’t say about the lady with cookies, but you I hope know that the murder of an Armenian is not considered a crime but is a heroic act in Azerbaijan. This is the way this community of zombies blinded with hatred is; one can do nothing about it. But what to do with the diplomat who out of “humanitarian” (!) considerations asks to set free someone who has so easily shot a child? Mr. Kerry, can you imagine the grief of the parents of this child and the fury of the Armenian people? Can you imagine our resentment when your employee showed such arrogance by allowing herself while in Yerevan, without hesitation, to advocate for these bloody criminals?

Let me tell you some details about this family. It is pointless to tell Victoria Nuland about this, she won’t understand it anyway; but you were once very well informed about the conflict and you even signed letters demanding to stop aggression against Armenians and to unite Artsakh with Armenia. So, the parents of the murdered adolescent, like hundreds of thousands of other Armenians, as a result of Azerbaijani aggression became refugees, and having lost everything began a new life in NKR. They are living a very hard life, earning their living with difficulty. Smbat, murdered by the jerks whom Mrs. Nuland patronizes, was earning a scanty pittance for buying his textbooks for the new school year. Imagine, Mr. Kerry, that someone kills the child and steals money from his pocket. Can you imagine that? Well for us this is hard to imagine too. But for those who ordered and did this, it is a piece of cake.

Two and a half years ago Ilham Aliyev redeemed one of his protégé-murderers with surname Safarov, who had murdered a sleeping Armenian officer at night with an axe. At that time angry letters demanding explanation from the officials in Hungary and Baku came flooding from all the corners of the world. The flow of these messages gradually subsided and only the government of your country persistently (till December) pursued presenting demands to Azerbaijan. Can you explain what the difference between the criminal in Budapest and the ones in Karvachar is? And what has changed during these years, if you have turned from the condemner of murderers to protector of murderers? Is it that for you it matters that the first crime was committed in Europe while the second in Artsakh? And if Nuland is unaware of the fact that the murderers of 17-year-old boy are to be decorated in Azerbaijan with honours, awards and glorification, then she is completely worthless as a specialist in Eurasia region she in charge of. In that case she is not only patronizing the murderers but is also not a professional in her field, as she is at the same time encouraging the Baku dictator to continue committing crimes.

A couple of years ago acting OSCE Chairman from Litva, out of humanitarian consideration offered the Armenian side to unilaterally withdraw the snipers, so that the snipers on the Azerbaijani side would feel more secure and comfortable and so that it would be more convenient for them to shoot Armenians. Mr. Kerry, could you please explain why no one out of humanitarian considerations has ever turned to the Azerbaijani side with such requests?

Why the same Nuland did not come up with a humanitarian initiative of returning an Armenian hostage to whom for two months the ICRC was not granted an access? Why was she keeping silent when a 20-year-old villager Manvel Saribekyan was tortured to death in Baku? Saribekyan was first tortured, then used for propaganda purposes, then killed and his mutilated body for more than a month was not being returned. Why didn’t she remember of humanism when another Armenian villager, Karen Petrosyan was being tortured to death for days literally before the eyes of millions of internet users? Then the butchers were boasting about their “heroism” (of course they would, they after all had killed a defenceless Armenian!), after which again for a long time they wouldn’t return the body.

It would perhaps harm Nuland’s tender soul to watch such a “video”, or this is simply out of the framework of her “humanitarian considerations”. But she was silent also when Azerbaijani vandals first shot an Armenian helicopter and then would not let anyone, not even the OSCE representatives, approach the bodies of the killed pilots, enjoying the suffering of their family members. Let me highlight that in all these instances, unlike the saboteurs whose crime Nuland kindly agreed to admit, we are talking of innocent people.

Mr. Kerry, why is it that every time it comes to humanism everyone turns exclusively to the Armenian side? Why should the Armenians understand and forgive the presidents of the United States when every time they lie that they would recognize the Armenian Genocide once they are elected as presidents? Why should Armenians approach with understanding to the fact that the act of aggression on the part of Azerbaijan and Turkey (blockade) of 20 years not only is not lifted, but is not even condemned by the international community? Is it because Turkey is your ally while Azerbaijan is rich with oil? In that case it would be more fair and better for everyone if you openly declared that democracy and human rights are nothing more than a cover for politics entirely biased by oil and blood.

Most probably we Armenians have also spoiled everyone by our orderly compliance with legal, humanitarian and moral norms. Otherwise we would not have been insulted by requests to return the killer of an Armenian. Perhaps we shouldn’t have returned and sent Azerbaijani prisoners of war and hostages, but perhaps we should have killed them instead and placed the videos online. We shouldn’t have returned the Azerbaijani boy on the third day but we should have likewise killed him and placed the photos online, so that his parents would have the same suffering as Manvel’s, Karen’s and Smbat’s parents had. We shouldn’t have had a trial of the Karvachar saboteurs but simply should have killed them upon detention, so that in Azerbaijan they would have been yelling, raising hysteria and disturbing everyone, including you and Mrs. Nuland with complaints about “bloodthirsty” Armenians.

However we did not do this, Mr. Secretary, because we are humans and will never lower ourselves to the level of nonhumans. We simply cannot do that – mentality, genes, history, morality and honour, both national and human, will not allow an Armenian to raise an axe against a sleeping man, to torture and humiliate an old man or to shoot an unarmed child. For us humanism is something more than cynical requests for setting criminals free. And your employees had better understand finally that the officials of the Republic of Artsakh are not the same as Hungarian officials (I stress, officials) who sold themselves completely to the Baku dictator. They should also think over the fact that by voicing such “requests” they first of all humiliate themselves and the country they represent.

I will not be writing here about the civilizational differences between us and our neighbours – the above-stated speaks about this. I simply very much hope that we together with you Mr. Kerry are on the same side of the civilizational gap, which is apparent to everyone. If this is so then there should be no more disgusting “requests” of this kind voiced on behalf of your department.

P.S. I request the US Embassy to present to John Kerry’s attention the content of this letter, which, as publications in press and social networks come to prove, does enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the Armenian people.